Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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73. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions that the Government and his Department are taking to address the regional imbalance with FDI investment and employment. [62028/22]

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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91. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department’s senior officials had discussions with the IDA regarding the lack of progress in counties Laois and Offaly in therms of the location of multinational companies in the region. [62029/22]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 91 together.

IDA Ireland reported strong employment growth among its client firms for 2022 on Monday 12th December. Based on a substantial increase in jobs from 2021, numbers in foreign firms in Ireland are now at the highest FDI employment level ever. Growth in employment in 2022 brought the number of people employed in the FDI sector to over 300,000.

These results illustrate the continued resilience of the FDI of companies in Ireland and Ireland's continued attractiveness as a competitive location for investment, despite a difficult global economic environment. Overall, 33,000 new jobs created in 2022. I am pleased that more than half of investments in 2021. and 2022 went to regional locations. As set out last week, under this Government's new Enterprise White Paper half of all inward investment projects through IDA to 2024 will be targeted to regional locations.

In 2021, Enterprise Ireland-backed companies employed over 200,000 individuals across Ireland and directly invested €9.79 billion in the Irish economy in the form of wages and salaries.

My Department working with the enterprise agencies continues to focus on promoting, encouraging and supporting investment from the FDI and indigenous sectors to support job creation. This Government and IDA Ireland recognise that competition for FDI is intensifying. Despite global challenges, inward investment is well placed to remain a vital contributor to Ireland’s prosperity and future success. Therefore, this Government and IDA Ireland will continue to strengthen Ireland’s value proposition to remain an attractive FDI destination. IDA Ireland continues to review its overall strategy, which has been very successful to date, and will continue to constantly self-evaluate to make sure Ireland remains competitive and an attractive place in which to invest and create jobs.

With regard to the indigenous sector, Enterprise Ireland launched its new three-year strategy, ‘Leading In A Changing World’ 2022-2024, in January this year. This Strategy fully aligns with the Government's ambition to bring job opportunities and growth to all parts of Ireland, with an ambitious target of creating 45,000 jobs over the next three years.

Enterprise Ireland supports companies in every county of Ireland to start and scale, innovate, and remain competitive on international markets, now and in the future. The contribution of Enterprise Ireland client companies to the Irish economy is very important, particularly from a regional and county perspective.

In 2021, County Laois had 38 Enterprise Ireland client companies, employing 1,886 and 5 IDA client companies employing 157 people, while County Offaly had 11 IDA supported companies employing 1,302 and 56 EI client companies, employing 4,249. A more detailed analytical report on employment figures for both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland for 2022 will be available in January 2023.

Officials in my Department liaise daily with our enterprise agencies who in turn foster relationships with their client companies. That engagement has intensified over recent months, and I would like to acknowledge the efforts of both the IDA and Enterprise Ireland in that regard.